Willow Springs?

[clw]

According to the Civil War Research Database available through Ancestry.com, the remnants of the First Michigan that got shipped west fought an engagement at Willow Springs, DAK (or Willow Springs, CO) on August 12, 1865 (or August 13, 1865). It's listed both ways. I have been looking most of the day for some reference to this engagement but no luck. Can anyone help?

[markland]

clw said:

According to the Civil War Research Database available through Ancestry.com, the remnants of the First Michigan that got shipped west fought an engagement at Willow Springs, DAK (or Willow Springs, CO) on August 12, 1865 (or August 13, 1865). It's listed both ways. I have been looking most of the day for some reference to this engagement but no luck. Can anyone help?

Just guessing as the Soldiers & Sailors database is down for maintenance but did the 1st Michigan Volunteers get consolidated with the 6th Michigan Volunteers?

I will get around to answering your question in a moment but want to give a bit of background. This was the summer after Sand Creek and the Cheyenne and their allies, largely Sioux, had for all intents and purposes closed the Overland Trail. Garrisons of volunteers manned the telegraph stations along that route all the way to Salt Lake City. This was also the summer that the battles of Julesburg, Colorado Territory, Platte Bridge, Dakota Territory (later Wyoming Territory) and Custard's Red Buttes fight were fought-usually with the Indians as victors. Along with the larger battles were skirmishes and raids by the Indians on the telegraph stations.

In was in the latter context that the Willow Springs incident occurred. Per John McDermott's Circle of Fire: The Indian War of 1865, p. 105: "While the Powder River Expediton [Connor] played out its drama in the shadows of the Big Horns, raiders continued to make life difficult for those who guarded the Oregon Trail west of Fort Laramie. On August 13, 150 Indians attacked a detachment at Willow Springs, stampeding the stock. The 6th Michigan troops charged them on foot and recovered some of the animals."

In William E. Unrau's Tending the Talking Wire, p. 189, he has this note about Willow Springs: "Willow Spring was on the Oregon Trail and Willow Creek, roughly halfway between Platte Bridge and Sweetwater Station. Although this well-known camping area probably derived its name from a water spring in that vicinity, Sergeant Isaac B. Pennock of the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry reported on May 26, 1865, 'South of Willow Springs is an oil spring said to run 50 barrels of petroleum per day 5 or 6 miles.'"

Here is a map from Unrau's book showing the telegraph stations from Deer Creek Station to Sweetwater Station, including Willow Springs.

freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~familyinformation/Forts/Oregon_Trail_Telegraph_Stations.jpg

I will see if I can find out more information. By the way, I whole-heartedly recommend both the referenced books.

Billy

[clw]

Thanks Billy for more clues!

Just guessing as the Soldiers & Sailors database is down for maintenance but did the 1st Michigan Volunteers get consolidated with the 6th Michigan Volunteers?

The Civil War Research Database says the day after the Grand Review in Washington on May 23 .....The Michigan Brigade was at once ordered to proceed to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., thence to Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory, where portions of each regiment were consolidated into a regiment designated as the "First Michigan Cavalry".

Longacre in Custer and His Wolverines, goes into a great deal more detail. I'll try to provide a synopsis of his western chapter........

Many of these weary men deserted in St Louis. Over 100 went AWOL at Leavenworth. The Fifth Michigan was mustered out in mass in July. The First under Stagg, Sixth under Kidd and Seventh under Briggs headed west to Fort Kearny. On July 7th, Kidd took the Sixth on to Ft. Laramie where he was assigned as commander of Connor's Left Expeditionary Column, to be composed not only of Kidd's regiment but other volunteer units that had been held to service after Appomattox. Four companies went on the Powder River Expedition the remaining five companies were dispersed to small outposts in the Dakotas, where they guarded settlers' trains and patrolled mail routes. A detachment of Stagg's First would later join him [Connor] on the North Platte, but most of it, along with Briggs' Seventh, would report to Camp Calhoun on the South Platte near Laporte, CO guarding the Oregon Trail. Later detachments of the Seventh would be sent through the Rockies to Sulphur Springs Station, Dakota Territory. Mutiny and desertion was rampant throughout, BTW -- they wanted to see Michigan, not western Dakota. On August 12, a detachment of the First Michigan -- which included a few veterans of the Fifth not mustered out at Ft Leavenworth fought a band of warriors at Willow Springs in the Dakotas. By the fall of 1865 more and more detachments of the Michigan Brigade moved farther and farther west. The First and Seventh were posted to the Utah Territory, where they guarded supply trains bound for Ft. Bridger via the Overland Trail. By this time the Michigan Cavalry Brigade officially ceased to exist. In September General Pope ordered the consolidation of the First, Sixth and Seventh regiments into a single regiment to be known as the First Michigan Veteran's Cavalry. On March 10, 1866 these last surviors of what had once been the Michigan Cavalry Brigade of the Army of the Potomac were mustered out of service at Salt Lake City.

So as you can see, these guys were all over the map (hence my PM). And the fact that you provided one is a great tool for trying to figure it all out! Considering the context of Sand Creek, etc that you pointed out, and the dearth of men after the Civil War it seems like these guys were fighting a forest fire with water buckets. From the authors we've both cited, there seems to be conflicting information in what's been published regarding Willow Springs and what little there is so sketchy. Were they Cheyenne or Sioux?, she wondered. And who led them? Probably never recorded, aye? It's seems few authors have addressed this period, so those titles and the information they provide is greatly appreciated.